So we've been looking for a timing company to do results at an upcoming race. Three of the ones Ive called charge between $1500-2000 for the standard chute/tear-tag system of timing, for up to 1000 runners.
I called a chip timing company, and they charge $2.50 per runner. For our race of about 500 runners, this comes out to $1250--cheaper than the manual system! Go figure!